So last week saw me back in England for a few days - there was family stuff to do and people to see, and a final work presentation to do.
I started off heading for Saffron Walden, via Hatfield, to see family. Visiting Hatfield was also a bit of a blast from the past, having spent years there as a student and post-grad. The Gateway superstore with flats above had been removed and replaced with an Asda superstore with no flats above, the shopping centre was as grim as ever, and I met a rat in an underpass. Time hasn't been kind to Hatfield, and even the airfield where de Havilland, then BAe, used to test planes has now disappeared under brick, tarmac and concrete.
On a happier note, Saffron Walden is as pretty as ever, like a TV set town in a Midsummer Murder or similarly nostalgic show, where buildings are pretty, the population handsome, traffic diverted from where you want to be, the sun shines and plants bloom.
I also went to Harwich - somewhere I last visited when a niece got married perhaps 25 years ago? To get to where I needed to be, I managed to avoid the town centre, which might have disappointed, and instead just followed the A120 until it fizzled out near the Lifeboat Museum. This is a quaint corner of town, with narrow roads, pretty houses and a view onto the estuary from nearly every point. There is a moored up Pirate Radio ship, bringing waves of nostalgia as I remembered hours listening to Caroline or Laser 252 as alternatives to Radio 1, which never seemed to have good reception. There was also a memorial to the Kindertransports of the late 1930s.
After a couple of nights with family, I had to move on to my main purpose of the visit - Norwich and the Broads. Thursday saw the celebration event, drawing to a close the magnificent Water, Mills and Marshes Landscape Partnership Scheme, while also alerting partners to a new, bigger, better fund from Heritage Lottery which will kick off next year. The presentation was held at the Norwich University of the Arts Immersive Visualisation laboratory, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, among others. My rather boring and untechnical presentation was done on a normal screen with rows of chairs in traditional form.
My low tech presentation was let down by the computer mouse not advancing slides, so Farrell of the Broads Authority (see last week) had to lie on the floor and manually click the keyboard to make things happen. As the lighting was low, I couldn't see my notes so some of the detail of the slides had to be glossed over, probably a good thing for the person on the floor.
Once the retrospective celebration was done, people could concentrate on the exciting new stuff - the new funding opportunity and the immersive screen. At 10 metres in diameter and 4 metres tall, the screen is amazing, and when video and audio work together, almost as good as being out there yourself, but with huge potential for exploring simulated futures as well as the past.
But planning for and evaluating the new fund and working with the immersive screen is for others younger than I. That was my last ever evaluation project, my last ever professional presentation - unless Baugé en Anjou ever discovers what I can do, I guess, but I doubt it. Now I turn the page on an evaluation career that lasted for 30 years, and move on to a new stage in my life, and see where that takes me!
I left Norwich with some regrets - it is a lovely city, set in a beautiful area of England, but I am not sure I will be going back. Another quick pitstop at Hatfield reminded me why we left there in 1989 without much of a backward glance, while the tarmac purgatory that is Portsmouth Harbour positively pushed me home!
So, home again, but here too there have been changes while I was away.
Something over 15 years ago, John took in next door's rather neglected and abused cat, Nennette. He had her sterilised (she was a good Mum, but much better off without the wherewithal for more), brought her into the house, had her chipped and parasites removed and her vaccinations done. We also changed her name to Nibbles - partly because Nennette was a horrid name, and partly because in those days, if you got too close, she would bite. Actually she never really got out of the nibbling phase, but it was done more in affection than in fear in later years.
Six years ago she had a stoke, which left her rather deaf, and with a tendency to walk in diagonals, but did not stop her climbing walls and trees. A couple of years ago she developed hyperthyroidism, which led to her going blind about a year ago. On Wednesday, her heart gave out, and she left us.
For a small cat, she had a larger than life character. Her facial expressions were amazing - often disapproving. She brought rats back for her kittens, which our neighbour treated with a certain horror, but we pointed out he should accept as the presents she intended them to be, and that he should feed her more! She had a five year battle with a green woodpecker that tried to visit the garden. She liked to taunt and goad dogs. She liked sandalwood scented soap.
What a lot to say this week! I have brought home a trail camera, so next week there may be a wildlife photo or two - we can but hope. Have a good week!